CHRISdotTODD

Updated March 7, 2011: I discovered you can also install the same scripts into Chrome. Chrome supports user scripting without the need for Greasemonkey. I've been somewhat familiar with Greasemonkey , but I never thought I had a real need. Greasemonkey is a Firefox Add-in allows you to customize the way a web page displays or behaves with JavaScript. A common use is to add download options to YouTube videos, such as with YouTube Video Download . Today I discovered 2 scripts for Salesforce.com that make administering Salesforce.com just a little easier. The first removes the click needed to display the menu that is displayed under your name. Most commonly used when you want to go to the Setup screen. With Salesforce.com Setup and Apps Hover Links , by just hovering over your name, the menu expands. It's simple, but quite nice. The second script is quite powerful. Setup Enhancer for Salesforce will add a search box above the setup menu, making it considerably easier to find what

If you've been following me, you know I've made predictions in 2009 and 2010 . While my first years predictions were rather light, I made 5 predictions as well as included further discussion of issues with my 2010 prediction. My record for 2010 wasn't so good, but that's only in a pure hit or miss view. In fact the subject matters I addressed, I believe were quite good, but change just didn't happen as quick as I had thought. See my recap post for further details and analysis on my 2010 predictions. Now that 2011 has started, I'll make another stab at what I believe will happen in the tech industry this year. This first one is rather easy... Facebook will release an email client , putting them in direct competition with Gmail, Hotmail, and Yahoo! mail. The current email within Facebook is limited in functionality, but in 2011 this will change as Facebook continues to look for ways to grow and grab more "eyeballs." Last year I predicted Internet Explo

At the beginning of 2010, I made some tech predictions as well as discussed some other technology issues. Here I will summarize how well I did with my predictions. In a nutshell, most did not come to pass, but the issues remain, so you could say I was just early. Amazon will adopt the ePub format for the Kindle. While Amazon has gotten a lot of pressure on the hardware side, their software version of the Kindle for other devices has kept them in the drivers seat for eReaders. With that position, they had no reason to add the ePub format. The iPhone will be on Verizon. This same prediction was made by many, and we still haven't seen it. Of course the rumors is alive that Verizon will get the iPhone this year. Look for my 2011 predictions to hear my position on this. Significant data loss/corruption on a Cloud platform. I couldn't find any evidence that this occurred. While in some cases there may have been a loss of service, it appears there were no data issues reported. In

Back in Windows XP, I found it easy to recover a window that the Title Bar was off the screen. When this occurred in Windows 7, I was surprised to find the same trick didn't work (right-click the icon in the Task bar, select Move, and use the arrow keys to grab and move the window). In Windows 7, it's not difficult, just different. Select the program in the Task Bar. Hold the Windows key and press an arrow key. Repeat the arrow key movement as necessary. The Windows key + arrow key offers other interesting options even with fully visible windows. Try Windows key + right or left arrow to get the window to take 1/2 of the screen. Use Windows key + up or down arrow to maximize or minimize, respectively, the window.

Note: These steps were written using Outlook 2003. Though most if not all versions should support this functionality, it may take slightly different steps in different versions. These steps will describe how to forward an email that contains a specific Subject, e.g. “the subject,” from a specific email address, e.g. "foo@foo.com," to another Outlook user, e.g. "Outlook User." 1. Within Outlook go to Tools >> Rules and Alerts… 2. Click New Rule… This will start the Rules Wizard 3. Select the “Start from a blank rule” option 4. Select “Check messages when they arrive” 5. Click Next 6. Select the two check boxes “from people or distribution list” and “with specific words in the subject.” This puts both phrases in the lower “Step 2” text box. 7. Click on the “people or distribution list” text in the lower box. This will open a new Rule Address dialog box, similar to the standard Address Book dialog box. 8. In the From - > field (at the

Occasionally I have the need to display umlauts or other non-standard Latin and Kanji characters in my HTML, JavaScript, and as a URL parameter. Each form have their own rules for encoding the characters to display correctly. HTML: Use the HTML name or HTML number. For example & and " for ampersand and quote, respectively. JavaScript: Use the Unicode equivalent. For example \u00E4 and \u00FC to add an umlaut over an 'a' or 'u', respectively. URL Parameter: Use HEX codes. For example, %20 and %2F for a space and forward slash, respectively. Here's a great reference from ascii.cl for the necessary codes.

Excel can be rather confusing. If you try a Print Preview , and then Page Setup , you are unable to set either "Rows to repeat at top" or "Columns to repeat at left". Yet you can set other Page Setup items from this dialog box. To set your row(s) and/or column(s), you need to select Print Titles from the Page Layout ribbon. This will bring up the same dialog box, but now you can choose the row(s) and/or column(s).

Dec 17, 2010: I finally received the email to claim my gift card -- it took 7 emails to Wavee in all before this occurred. On the 7th email, a representative who had not previously responded provided all the necessary information. This was the service I expected with my first email. As far as the gift card itself, many are electronic only. I did order one that had to be mailed -- I'm still waiting for it to arrive. Some of you may be familiar with a new service, Wavee . You bid on items of interest, $0.01 at a time. The highest bidder wins, and gets to purchase the product for the bid price. Sounds good? Well, each bid you make costs $0.75. But consider, an item that sells for $300 took in $22,500 (30000 * $0.75) -- there's 30,000 bids at $0.75 each on an item that sells for $300. So while you spend your money to be the single winner, Wavee's raking in the dough. You can also buy items that are up for auction. In some cases, they offer a discount based on the money already

My Thunderbird email client quit opening up links when I clicked them, regardless if they were in an email or from an RSS feed. Turns out the issue was with my web browser. I switched from Firefox as my default to Internet Explorer and it worked again. I then reset my default to Firefox, restarted Firefox, and it responded again, too.

I recently had to make a minor edit to an old PDF that I no longer had the source for. For large edits, there are PDF to DOC converters, but for minor edits I just use Acrobat. With this particular file I got an unexpected error message. All or part of the selection has no available system font. You cannot add or delete text using the currently selected font. Through a little searching I discovered that by selecting and then right-clicking the text, and entering the Properties dialog, I could change the font being used. In this particular case though, there were no system fonts embedded in the document and the only choices were from the original computer that created it -- a Mac. Since I was using Windows, this failed too. Fortunately for me I have Adobe Illustrator. With Adobe Illustrator you can open individual pages of a PDF and using the text tool you can make changes. If you don't have Acrobat or Illustrator and need to edit a PDF, PDFEscape -- a browser-based applet -- will